A Field Sparrow – The First in a Long Time Here
The same day when I heard the Pine Siskins – January 27 – was a beautiful, sunny day. Chilly, with a light northwest wind, and a big, open, light blue sky, graced with high, sweeping white clouds – and lots of active birds. The Siskins were among several highlights of a long, late-morning walk, which also included a Field Sparrow, Brown Creeper, two Hermit Thrushes, two Brown-headed Nuthatches, and a colorful flock of several Pine Warblers feeding on crushed pecans in the road.
The front yard seemed quiet when I first stepped out the front door – only the whistle of Mourning Dove wings, the chickadee-dee-dee of a Carolina Chickadee, and a Brown Thrasher that flushed up and out of the bushes beside me and flew to the wax myrtles, where it walked around in the open, tall, handsome, bright. A Yellow-rumped Warbler flew from one of the feeders with a sharp, annoyed check! A Carolina Wren trilled, and a Downy Woodpecker rattled. A bright red male Northern Cardinal sat quietly on a branch near the feeders. Crows cawed and Blue Jays called in the distance.
Along the road, three Turkey Vultures floated just over the treetops and sailed up and away, and Eastern Bluebirds, House Finches, Tufted Titmice and Carolina Wrens sang. A Red-bellied Woodpecker rattled and chucked. Chipping Sparrows flew up like sparks from the grass and into the trees. An Eastern Phoebe called tsup repeatedly, and flew low across the road in front of me, moving from branch to branch. American Robins were scattered over yards and in trees just about everywhere – not in big flocks, but scattered out, foraging and squeaking as they flew or interacted with others.
A small flock of Red-winged Blackbirds flew over, and the high, thin calls of another small flock of Cedar Waxwings drifted down as they settled in several small, bare-limbed trees, their lemon-yellow breasts glowing in the sunlight. Two Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers mewed, and tapped steadily on the trunks of pecan trees.
It was in an area of privet bushes and other shrubs that the Field Sparrow unexpectedly appeared. It was foraging in grass below the shrubs with White-throated Sparrows and Eastern Towhees. It flew up and onto a branch – a small, roundish sparrow with a sturdy pink bill, and a gray and rufous-striped head and patterned face, a plain breast and pinkish legs. I almost didn’t believe my eyes, because I haven’t seen or heard a Field Sparrow here for a long time – not all last spring or summer, I think – and I’ve missed them, especially the bright, bouncing song that used to be so common. But there it was, quiet, but distinctive. It sat for only a few minutes before flying into other bushes and out of sight.
Brown Thrashers made their smacking calls from several places in the thickets. A couple of quiet Mockingbirds lurked in bushes.